1421 hypothesis

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Image:Zhenghemap.jpg The 1421 theory of the Chinese discovery of the Americas originates from former British Royal Navy submarine commander Gavin Menzies. In his book, 1421: The Year China Discovered The World (1421: The Year China Discovered America), Menzies suggests that ships commanded by the Chinese captains Zhou Wen (周聞), Zhou Man (周滿), Yang Qing (楊慶) and Hong Bao (洪保), in the fleet of Emperor Zhu Di's (朱棣) Admiral Zheng He (鄭和), travelled to many parts of the world during the Ming Dynasty era from 1421 to 1423, before Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic.

According to Menzies, the discoveries include Australia, New Zealand, the Americas, Antarctica, the northern coast of Greenland, and the Northeast Passage. The knowledge of these discoveries has been lost, Menzies argues, because the mandarins (administrators) of the Emperor's court took a strict line on new adventures after lightning (which was considered a sign of divine anger) burnt down the newly constructed Forbidden City. A year later, his successor (son), the Hongxi Emperor, then forbade making new voyages, and his advisors hid or destroyed all accounts of Zheng He's voyages.

The 1421 hypothesis is widely disputed by scholars. It is a revolution in history, but fails to present strong proofs, largely relying on contested documents. However, it is popular in the Pseudohistory field.

1 Methodology
- 1.1 Maps
- 1.2 Other evidence
2 Criticism
3 Reactions
4 Achievement
5 References
6 See also
7 External links
- 7.1 Listening
- 7.2 Debunking sites

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Methodology

Menzies bases his theory on Chinese shipwrecks, old maps, surviving Chinese literature from the time, and accounts written by navigators such as Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan. Menzies also believes that unexplained structures such as the Newport Tower and the Bimini Road were constructed by Zheng He's men.

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Maps

Image:KangnidoMap.jpg Image:FraMauroMap.jpg Several maps were used by Menzies:

The Kangnido map (混一疆理歷代國都之圖 or 疆理圖) (1402), which tends to indicate an extensive geographical knowledge of the Old World (and particularly of the contour of the African continent) by Eastern Asian countries, even before the time of Zheng He's expeditions.
The Pizzigano map (1424)
The Fra Mauro map (1459), which describes an expedition by an Asian ship into the Atlantic around 1420:

"About the year of Our Lord 1420 a ship, what is called an Indian junk (lit. "Zoncho de India", "India" meaning Asia in 15th century Europe), on a crossing of the Sea of India towards the Isle of Men and Women (close to Socotra), was diverted beyond the Cape of Diab (Cape of Good Hope), through the Green Isles, out into the Sea of Darkness (Atlantic Ocean) on a way west and southwest. Nothing but air and water was seen for 40 days and by their reckoning they ran 2,000 miles and fortune deserted them. When the stress of the weather had subsided they made the return to the said Cape of Diab in 70 days and drawing near to the shore to supply their wants the sailors saw the egg of a bird called roc." (Fra Mauro map, Inscription 10, A13).

The Cantino map (1502)
The Waldeseemüller map (1507)
The Piri Reis map (1513)
The Jean Rotz map (1542)
The Wu Pei Chi (Wu Bei Zhi; 武備志) map (redrawn after Zheng He's maps in 1628)
The Vinland map

Also, the De Virga world map (1411-1415) had been presented on Gavin Menzies's 1421 website, as new evidence to the propagation of eastern cartographic know-how before the European Age of Discovery.

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Other evidence

Among his specific evidence are:

DNA studies showing "recent" DNA flow from China to indigenious people of North & South America, Australia, New Zealand, etc. Template:Citation needed
Maps that apparently show foreign lands before the Europeans discovered them.
A drawing of an armadillo in a book published in China in 1430. Template:Citation needed
Bananas and rice plantations seen along the banks of the Amazon by Francisco de Orellana, 1541. Template:Citation needed
Incidences of pre-Columbian horses, flightless ducks and Asiatic pigs.Template:Citation needed
Carved stones with apparent Asian writing found in places such as the Cape Verde islands, South America and New Zealand. Template:Citation needed
Artefacts such as Chinese Porcelain and Chinese Jade found in the Americas which date back before the arrival of Europeans. Template:Citation needed
Cases of some diseases, such as smallpox, appearing before the arrival of Europeans.
Linguistic similarities with the Chinese found between place names in Peru and Chile. Template:Citation needed

Also quoted are the accounts of Bartolomé de las Casas, according to which two dead bodies that looked like Indians were found on Flores (Azores). De las Casas said he found that fact in Columbus' notes, and it was one of the reasons that led Columbus to assume India was on the other side of the ocean.

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Criticism

Menzies' hypotheses have found no support among historians. "Examination of the book's central claims reveals they are uniformly without substance" Template:Ref.

The 1421 hypothesis is based on documents of debatable provenance (the Piri Reis map, the Vinland map) and on original interpretation of accepted documents (Fra Mauro map, de las Casas) and archaeological findings.

One key question is why the alleged great voyages of 1421 managed to touch every corner of the world except Europe, where a record of their occurrence would have been made and maintained. Given the fact that Chinese-European contact existed for well over three centuries by the 15th century, it is difficult to understand why nothing of these voyages can be found in the historical record (including the convenient destruction of all Chinese records). Menzies has provided scant evidence of any such visit, simply alluding to vague European contact -- but contact between the two cultures dates to the Renaissance and does not depend upon any large-scale sea travel.

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Reactions

As the development of this hypothesis is relatively new, Menzies has yet to be able to establish a defined theory. He modifies and updates his theory from time to time based on newly discovered evidence. His new findings are usually bigger, bolder, and much less traditional than his previous ones. For example, he now claims some of Zheng He's ships travelled as far as Spain. He also now alleges that the Chinese records of the voyages were never, in fact, destroyed, and are waiting to be found.

It should be noted that certain aspects and findings may be too speculative in nature and easily disproved by mainstream historians. A counter-argument is that the new ideas that are relatively less accepted may not necessarily be untrue.

According to critics, the cartographic evidence admits of better explanations than the one given by Menzies, while the archaeologic evidence is often of an extremely dubious nature, in other cases demonstrably incorrect. Another criticism is that Menzies chose not to consult the most obvious source of information on the Zheng He voyages, namely the Chinese records from the period themselves.

Menzies has sparked off a series of independent research activities in this area, many of which focus on hazy and debated areas of history. For example, the question of whether Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli's contributions were influenced by China's relations with Papal Rome prior to the Renaissance has become a highly targeted research area.

These unanswered areas fuel the interest in Menzies and his theory.

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Achievement

Whatever its historical merits, Menzies' book and the surrounding publicity has succeeded in raising awareness of Zheng He and the Ming Imperial Treasure Fleets, reaching a much broader audience than any previous work on the subject.

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